]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/rabbitcasserole/feed/012165Tinder bundleshttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/tinder-bundles/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/tinder-bundles/#respondThu, 01 Feb 2018 09:55:23 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=12074This article on tinder bundles was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal issue 13 published in February 2018. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy! As I come towards the end of discussing various methods of ignition, I think it’s time to take a look at tinder bundles. Many of the […]

]]>This article on tinder bundles was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal issue 13 published in February 2018. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy!

As I come towards the end of discussing various methods of ignition, I think it’s time to take a look at tinder bundles. Many of the ignition methods we’ve seen don’t actually produce a flame, rather they give us an ember, so fire pistons, traditional flint & steel, lenses, parabolic mirrors and indeed that most iconic of bushcraft skills, fire by friction (of which more to come in the next issue). We need to take that ember and turn it into a flame and that is best achieved using a tinder bundle.

When I’m teaching tinder bundles I often start students off using meadow hay (which I collect from the adjacent field), but there are plenty of materials to be found that work at least as well, if not better – cleavers, bracken, honeysuckle and many inner barks are all great. I’ll be writing more on tinders in the future.

I tend to go with a big tinder bundle, mostly because I don’t like taking chances with fire lighting, and I also go a little against the norm and make a rectangular shape rather than a bird’s nest. I do this for four reasons: I’ve seen too many people make their tinder bundle too thin and then lose the ember out the back and, if you have a round tinder bundle, when it ignites it’s right where your fingers are.

Folding the tinder bundle into a rectangular shape also helps with getting it at the right ‘density’. If it’s too lose, then it‘s easy for the ember to fall out; if it’s too tight it makes it harder to get oxygen to the ember. Folding it into shape seems to get the tinder bundle about the right density.

People often have a tendency to bend over when they are blowing into a tinder bundle; try to avoid doing this as you’ll end up breathing in smoke and when it ignites there is a good chance that your face will be directly above the flame.

Now and again people will lean backwards and blow up into a tinder bundle. Here there’s a chance that the ember, or other bits of the tinder bundle, can drop onto your face, or more seriously into your eye. There is also the chance that you might just topple over backwards!

Before you start blowing into the tinder bundle, it’s important to align yourself with the wind; I stand so that the wind is blowing onto my back. This prevents me from breathing in the smoke that the tinder bundle produces and greatly reduces the chances of a flame being blown into my face when it ignites.

The wind plays a big part in igniting a tinder bundle. When it’s windy you often don’t need to do anything more than hold the tinder bundle so that the wind blows directly into it; if it’s a still day, then you need to breathe into the tinder bundle and, depending on the materials you are using, it might take a few minutes.

How you breathe into a tinder bundle is really important. First up, don’t get too close as the moisture in your breath can have a detrimental effect on the ember, so I tend to blow from a couple of inches away. If you start blowing into your ember in the same way as you would blow out candles on a birthday cake, don’t be surprised if you get the same result. I use long, slow breaths into a tinder bundle. If you’ve ever done yoga or tai chi, it’s that same kind of breathing. When you breathe in, make sure that you move the tinder bundle away from your face so that you don’t end up breathing in smoke. Often people get the bit about long slow breaths into the tinder bundle but forget to make sure that they are taking big breaths in as well – make sure that you breathe in at least as much as you breathe out – or you’ll make yourself dizzy! Often if I’m teaching this to children I’ll get them to take in two breaths for every out breath.

So, using a rectangular tinder bundle, I then make a small depression about a quarter of the way from the top; this is where I place the ember, or charcloth in the photo. Make sure that you bring the sides of the tinder around so that the ember is covered in all directions. I hold the tinder bundle at the bottom, so that when it ignites the flame is away from my fingers. And then start to breathe into the tinder bundle.

Initially you are likely to see thin wisps of smoke coming from the top but gradually the volume of smoke will increase. As long as smoke is coming out, don’t be tempted to open your tinder bundle for a look, keep blowing. As a general rule, the more smoke you see, the harder you can blow into your tinder bundle. Once you’re getting dense clouds of smoke, you’re very close to flames being produced so double check that you’re positioned correctly in the wind (if you’re not, you’ll likely be choking from the smoke anyway).

People will often try to put their lit tinder bundle down by bending over, but this places your face and torso directly above the flame and means you could burn yourself.

Instead, once the tinder bundle is alight, I kneel down and place it into my fire lay.

Earlier I said that there are four reasons why I make a rectangular tinder bundle, the more astute may have noticed that I only gave three! The fourth reason is that once my tinder bundle is alight I can simply put it onto my fire lay upside down; because the ember is a quarter of the way down, when the tinder bundle is turned upside down most of the fuel is above the flame.

If you’re wondering why I’ve written about tinder bundles before fire by friction, it’s because that’s the order I teach these skills in; you’re better off knowing what to do with your ember before you make one!

Thanks to Jack and Jessie Frimodig, our nephew and niece from San Diego, for helping out.

As always, get out and practice, igniting a tinder bundle is a crucial part of your fire lighting repertoire.

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/tinder-bundles/feed/012074Heat losshttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/heat-loss/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/heat-loss/#commentsTue, 19 Dec 2017 10:26:11 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11957Winter is upon us here in the British Isles and so staying warm and dry when outside becomes particularly important. When I’m running survival courses I tell students that they should prioritise, and that their priority will always be the thing that will kill them first. There’s a common rule that can be applied here, […]

]]>Winter is upon us here in the British Isles and so staying warm and dry when outside becomes particularly important. When I’m running survival courses I tell students that they should prioritise, and that their priority will always be the thing that will kill them first. There’s a common rule that can be applied here, often known as the rule of 3s:

You can go 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. OK, a little generalised, but the message is clear.

The biggest killers outdoors are hypothermia (body temperature below 35°C) and hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), so if we couple that with our rule of 3s, shelter is likely to be the first priority. Of course, shelter starts with your clothing and so it’s imperative that you’re dressed appropriately with insulating layers and water and windproof outer layers. So let’s think about how our bodies produce and lose heat.

How your body produces heat

Our bodies have 2 main ways of producing heat, either by eating or by exercising. If I’m camping out in cold weather, I’ll have a big meal right before bedtime. Add to that some exercise before getting into my sleeping bag (I tend to use big muscle groups to generate maximum heat, so squats is always a good one), and then wriggling around in my sleeping bag to get undressed, and already I’m feeling warm.

But this advice stands at any time; either eat or do something to get warm. Bear in mind that this is something of a balancing act, as after maintaining your core body temperature, you want to conserve calories.

How your body loses heat

Many years ago, back in school, I was taught about methods of heat transfer. It’s useful to put this knowledge into context and think about how it affects our body temperature.

Our bodies radiate heat away from them a bit like a radiator at home. It’s formally known as thermal or infrared radiation, think of the image you get from a thermal imaging camera. Sometimes, if we’re in a hot place, we’ll encourage this heat loss by taking layers off. In a cold place we try to prevent heat loss through radiation by wearing many thin insulating layers.

If you watch the weather forecast you might hear the forecaster mention wind chill, something like ”It’ll be 4°C, but with wind chill it will feel like 1°C.”. This is convection at work. Put simply, convection is when heat is lost as air flows past your body. We can reduce the amount of heat lost this way by wearing windproof clothing or simply getting out of the wind; this could be as straightforward as taking cover on the lee of a hill, walking below the ridgeline, heading to tree cover etc.

Conduction is when heat is transferred from something hot to something cooler. It differs from radiation in that molecules are required. In general terms a solid is a better conductor of heat than a liquid, which in turn is a better conductor than a gas. This is because the molecules are packed closer together in a solid than in a liquid or gas. What this means in practice is that we can lose lots of heat to the ground; just think of sliding off your roll mat in the night and how cold that can feel. It’s why a blanket underneath is worth two on top and why we teach the importance of making a bed in a debris shelter.

Even though liquids aren’t as good conductors as solids, getting wet is a very bad idea (despite what you might see on some TV shows).

If you’re wet heat can be transferred away from your body up to 30 times faster.

Lastly we have evaporation, which for our purposes comes down to sweating. Why is this an issue in a cold place? Because if that sweat is absorbed by your clothes and then freezes, you’ll be in a bad way very quickly. So use your layering system to make sure that you don’t sweat.

So hopefully from this you can understand why it’s so important to keep out of the wind and rain. Statistically the people who get themselves into difficulties in the outdoors aren’t people on overnight trips, who are typically experienced and well prepared with waterproofs, tent, sleeping bag and food, but day hikers who might not be as experienced and don’t have those basic items with them. Even if I’m only on a short hike, I still carry waterproofs, spare clothes, a bothy bag and a mylar blanket.

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/heat-loss/feed/111957Guelder rose decocted tincturehttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/guelder-rose-decocted-tincture/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/guelder-rose-decocted-tincture/#respondTue, 12 Dec 2017 12:34:16 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11928Nicola has recently made a Guelder rose decocted tincture. The bark from Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) is often refered to as ‘cramp bark’, so it’s no great surprise that it has been used in the past for muscle cramps, menstrual cramps, muscle spasms, restless leg and many other ailments. How to make guelder rose decocted tincture […]

Nicola has recently made a Guelder rose decocted tincture. The bark from Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) is often refered to as ‘cramp bark’, so it’s no great surprise that it has been used in the past for muscle cramps, menstrual cramps, muscle spasms, restless leg and many other ailments.

How to make guelder rose decocted tincture

Peel the bark in short strips from a freshly cut branch. Remember to prune responsibly.

Place the strips of bark into a saucepan of water; use enough water so that the bark can float freely.

Bring the water to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool.

Strain off the liquid and measure how much you have.

Add the same volume of vodka.

Pour the mixture into a jar and add the strips of bark.

Leave in a dark cupboard for a month, shaking the jar every day.

After a month, strain, bottle and label.

Add 2 – 5ml to water and take upto 3 times a day.

If you’re interested in wild plants and trees and their herbal uses, take a look at our Herbal Remediescourse. You can see photos from previous courses on our Facebook page.

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/guelder-rose-decocted-tincture/feed/011928Fire pistonshttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/fire-pistons/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/fire-pistons/#respondMon, 11 Dec 2017 11:14:11 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11915This article on fire pistons was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal Issue 12 published in December 2016. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy! Don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself. Fire Pistons Fire pistons can trace their history to the Pacific Islands and parts of […]

]]>This article on fire pistons was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal Issue 12 published in December 2016. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy! Don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself.

Fire Pistons

Fire pistons can trace their history to the Pacific Islands and parts of south east Asia where it is thought they developed from blow pipes. Some have argued that they were invented separately in Europe, certainly they were being widely used in households in the early 1800s.

They work in the same way as a diesel engine (as fire pistons pre-date the diesel engine it is possible they inspired them), that is using compression. When a gas is compressed (air in the case of a fire piston) it creates heat and it is this heat that ignites the tinder.

There are many fire pistons on the market but they all have some features in common.; they consist of two parts, a piston and a cylinder. The cylinder is generally around 10 – 15cm long, 12mm in diameter with a bore in the centre about 8mm diameter. The piston needs to be a snug fit in the bore and many have a plastic or rubber seal on one end; the piston has a small depression to put some tinder in.

The fire pistons that I use come with some clever extras; they have a compartment for some char cloth and another for petroleum jelly and on top of that, if you unscrew the piston you’ll find a ferrocerium rod.

Make sure that both the cylinder and piston are clean before use. Put some tinder in the depression in the piston. I generally use char cloth, sometimes King Alfred’s Cake. Make sure the tinder is flush with the top of the depression.

Put a little petroleum jelly on your finger and smear a thin layer all the way around the underside of the seal.

I use two methods with a fire piston, onto a stump and standing upright. Both methods have one thing in common – you need to push the piston into the cylinder and back out in one fast, fluid motion. Down to build up the compression and back out again to get oxygen onto the tinder.

If there’s a handy stump or solid object around (in this case a fence post), I’ll take advantage of it. Place the piston on the stump with the tinder at the top. Place the cylinder on top and push down and bring back up quickly. Gently blow on the tinder.

If you don’t have a stump handy, you can use a fire piston standing up. Hold the cylinder in your non-dominant hand and the piston in your dominant hand. Again use a fast, fluid motion to push the piston into the cylinder and back out again and blow gently onto the tinder.

This is Ho Kyung, one of our instructors, blowing onto a piece of char cloth he’d just ignited.

Whichever method you use, you then need to transfer the tinder from the fire piston onto a larger piece of tinder and then place that in a tinder bundle to blow into a flame.

Whilst I think that fire pistons are good fun to use, there are quite a few steps to get to a fire, and many of those steps require fine motor skills and for that reason I wouldn’t rely on them for getting a fire going.

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/fire-pistons/feed/011915Using electricity to light a firehttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/using-electricity-to-light-a-fire/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/using-electricity-to-light-a-fire/#respondMon, 04 Dec 2017 14:23:32 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11878This article on using electricty to light a fire was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal issue 11 published in October 2016. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy! Using electricity to light a fire When I’m teaching electrical fire lighting methods, I often use the analogy of an […]

]]>This article on using electricty to light a fire was originally published in The Bushcraft Journal issue 11 published in October 2016. As it’s now completely free there’s no excuse for not getting a copy!

Using electricity to light a fire

When I’m teaching electrical fire lighting methods, I often use the analogy of an electric toaster to explain what’s going on. If you look down into a toaster, you’ll see that it has rows of metal coils on either side. When you turn on the toaster, electricity runs through the wire coils. If the wire has enough ‘resistance’ (and a toaster is designed so that it has just the right amount), the flow of electrons is slowed down, the wire gets hot and glows orange/red. And it’s this heat that toasts your bread (or crumpets, I like crumpets!).

With this knowledge in mind, we can take advantage of the heat created through electrical resistance to light a fire.

Wire wool and a battery

Probably the easiest way to demonstrate electrical fire lighting is to use a piece of wire wool and a 9v battery. I use 000 grade wire wool which, as a useful aside, can also be ignited with a fire steel. Somewhat ironically, the only place I use a 9v battery is in a smoke detector at home.

Stretch the wire wool and then simply touch the bottom with both terminals of the battery.

The wonderment this creates on people’s faces is priceless, but unfortunately we don’t have a flame.

To create a flame what I often do is create a sort of inside out tinder bundle by wrapping the wire wool around a piece of cotton wool, a bit like an ice cream cone, and then touch the battery to the end of the cone.

A little bit of blowing and the cotton wool ignites.

I don’t carry either a 9v battery or wire wool when I’m in the woods and so this method isn’t very practical for me. But a big part about knowing different fire lighting methods is that the principles can be adapted depending on your situation and what you have to hand. The more you know, the more likely you are to be able to get that fire lit.

Other batteries

Back in my youth, from around 14 or so, I would routinely spend 4 or 5 days at a time wandering around on Dartmoor. Those of you of a similar age might remember that the torches back in those days were big and most of that bulk was down to batteries. Nowadays we generally have torches with LED bulbs that use AA or AAA batteries, which at 1.5V aren’t as effective in conjunction with wire wool.

None the less we can use these smaller batteries together with some metallic sweet wrappers. Chewing gum wrappers are ideal because they have a thin paper backing, and it’s this paper that ignite

Firstly, you need to remove the chewing gum and then cut the wrapper in half along its length.

Now cut the wrapper so that it’s much thinner in the middle. To understand why this helps, think of a wide river that narrows, the current becomes stronger as the river gets narrower. This is basically what happens when we cut the chewing gum wrapper, the narrow section increases the resistance, which as we discussed in our toaster analogy, slows the electrons and creates heat.

Hold the wrapper to either end of the battery and it should start to smoke quite quickly followed by ignition. The real trick is getting the burning wrapper into some tinder before it goes out again, because it doesn’t burn for long!

I have a hand torch that uses 2 x C123 batteries; these are 3V batteries. It’s one of the batteries from my torch that I’m using here. I don’t chew gum but a wrapper in your fire lighting kit weighs next to nothing.

Mobile phones

Most modern mobile phones are sealed units and the battery isn’t easily accessible; you would need to break the phone to get to it. I have an old mobile phone with a removable back. I use it because the battery lasts almost 2 weeks before it runs out, which is ideal if I’m in the woods. But I can also get to the battery easily.

It’s a little trickier than using a 9v battery, but still relatively easy.

Car battery

I’m guessing most of us don’t carry a car battery in our fire lighting kit, but none the less, it might be that you’re with a vehicle. Rather than creating sparks with a car battery and then using those to light a fire, use a single piece of wire from one battery terminal to the other; use a short piece of wire that just reaches. Cut away some of the insulation from the wire and wait for it to glow red (much like our toaster example) and use this heat to ignite your tinder.

As always, don’t take my word for any of this, get out there and try it for yourselves!

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/using-electricity-to-light-a-fire/feed/011878Get 33% off in our 2017 Christmas Sale!!!!http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/awesome-christmas-sale/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/awesome-christmas-sale/#respondWed, 29 Nov 2017 14:38:56 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11845We’re delighted to be once again running a Christmas sale. Get a huge 33% off any of our 2018 bushcraft courses; simply use this code at checkout: 33%OFFXMAS2017 Weekend Bushcraft Course This is our introductory 2 day bushcraft course, designed to initiate you into the joys of woodland living, although many of the skills that you will […]

We’re delighted to be once again running a Christmas sale. Get a huge 33% off any of our 2018 bushcraft courses; simply use this code at checkout:

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]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/awesome-christmas-sale/feed/011845The woodland handbaghttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/the-woodland-handbag/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/the-woodland-handbag/#respondThu, 23 Nov 2017 11:44:38 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11814When I’m out and about practicing my bushcraft, I like to find the easiest and most efficient way of doing things. I don’t want to expend energy unnecessarily and so using simple techniques can often be more rewarding than might be imagined. With that in mind, here’s a great little method of carrying firewood using […]

]]>When I’m out and about practicing my bushcraft, I like to find the easiest and most efficient way of doing things. I don’t want to expend energy unnecessarily and so using simple techniques can often be more rewarding than might be imagined. With that in mind, here’s a great little method of carrying firewood using a ‘woodland handbag’.

You’ll need a couple of sticks about a foot long and a length of paracord. Find the midpoint of the paracord and loop it around one of the sticks so that you have two strands loose. If you have 2 shorter strands of cord, use them.

Tie those ends off around the other stick.

You should now have a stick on either end of the paracord.

Lay the paracord on the ground and place your firewood on top.

Place one stick inside the 2 pieces of paracord.

You can now hoist the load onto your shoulder, making it much easier to carry your firewood around. The two photos below show Peter carrying firewood with and without using a woodland handbag; you can see how much easier it is with, whilst also giving you both hands free.

]]>http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/the-woodland-handbag/feed/011814Traditional flint & steelhttp://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/traditional-flint-steel/
http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/traditional-flint-steel/#respondMon, 02 Oct 2017 18:35:55 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11712This article was originally published in Issue 10 of The Bushcraft Journal in October 2016. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Traditional Flint & Steel I wrote about using fire steels back in issue 6 of The Bushcraft Journal and this time around it’s a related method, the traditional fire steel, or […]

]]>This article was originally published in Issue 10 of The Bushcraft Journal in October 2016. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

Traditional Flint & Steel

I wrote about using fire steels back in issue 6 of The Bushcraft Journal and this time around it’s a related method, the traditional fire steel, or as it is often known, flint and steel.

As a fire lighting method, the use of flint and steel is inherently linked to the iron age, developing first in the near east and spreading to Europe around the 11th century BCE. We know that the Vikings were using fire steels routinely, there are many fine examples on display in museums across Europe. Typically Viking fire steels were a basic ‘C’ shape; I have many of this type made by Ross at Kaos Blacksmiths.

There is also evidence of their use in Japan, where a flint and steel set is referred to as hiuchibukur (actually sets use agate or quartz as flint is rare in Japan). According to an early chronicle of Japanese history and mythology from 720 CE, called Nihon Shoki, a noble named Prince Yamatotakeru was presented with a pouch containing a striker and stone prior to setting off on a dangerous mission.

We have flint in abundance all around our bushcraft camp; I tend to pop into the adjoining field after it’s been ploughed to stock up my collection. But as mentioned above, you don’t need to use flint, other rocks can be substituted. I’ve also had success with broken glass and ceramics; I’ve tried using a piece of terracotta plant pot as well as a wall tile but found that they were too soft. The important point is that you need to have a hard, sharp edge to strike against.

Similarly, you don’t necessarily need a manufactured traditional fire steel, you just need carbon steel, so old files, chisels etc. or the back of a carbon steel knife.

When it comes to holding the fire steel, I know that a lot of people put their fingers through, a bit like a knuckle duster.

I avoid holding them like this as it tends to bring the fingers in a bit close to a sharp edge. Also, because I don’t make the downward strike from my elbow, but instead from my wrist, I tend to hold the steel between my thumb and index finger. I find this gives more control to the strike.

I hold the flint in my left, non-dominant, hand and the steel in my right. Try to get the strike onto the flint in a slight arc so that all of the steel makes contact. Sometimes you need to alter the angle of the flint subtly to get the right angle; because every piece of flint is unique, the angle of the sharp edge you need is always slightly different too. The aim is to shave off a tiny piece of the steel, causing it to heat up. It’s these hot pieces of metal that you see sparking.

Char cloth works really well with this method of fire lighting. I hold the char cloth on top of the flint so that I can see when a spark lands on it. Position the char cloth so that a frayed edge is next to the sharp edge of the flint.

Once the char cloth is lit, it can go into a tinder bundle and be blown into a flame. In the photo I’ve used inner bark of sweet chestnut.

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http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/our-walking-kit/#commentsFri, 22 Sep 2017 17:03:21 +0000http://www.jackravenbushcraft.co.uk/?p=11684Nicola and I are big fans of the British countryside and on our days off and holidays we try to visit and explore as much of it as possible. This year we’ve been walking locally on the North Downs as well as going to the New Forest, Dartmoor, Jurassic Coast, South Downs and the Lake […]

]]>Nicola and I are big fans of the British countryside and on our days off and holidays we try to visit and explore as much of it as possible. This year we’ve been walking locally on the North Downs as well as going to the New Forest, Dartmoor, Jurassic Coast, South Downs and the Lake District; last year we managed to get to Pembrokeshire, the Peak District, the Lake District and the Isle of Arran! Whenever we go off walking we make sure that we’re prepared for whatever the weather might throw at us, and a few other eventualities. So this post isn’t particularly about bushcraft, but in some regards it could be classed as survival. I say this for 2 reasons:

The most important survival skill is to not get in a survival situation in the first place, so be prepared.

Most people who end up in a survival situation are day hikers who aren’t prepared!

You often hear people saying things like “The weather can change quickly on the hills”, and this is demonstrably true. The two photos below, of me and Nicola on Bull Crag in the Lake District, were taken minutes apart in September. In this first one, the sun was shining through the cloud, there was no wind and the temperature was a pleasant 14 or 15°C.

And then it changed to this; the wind was gusting and cold and the accompanying rain had a real bite to it (shortly after this photo, the waterproof trousers and hats went on as well). So making sure that you’re wearing the right clothing and have waterproofs with you is essential; without good waterproofs hypothermia is a very real possibility.

So anyway, here’s what we take with us when we have a day out hiking (essentially we both carry the same stuff, with a few differences that I’ll mention later).

Ordinarily when I’m in the woods I wear lots of greens and browns, but when we’re out walking we both wear bright colours (I like red, Nicola is more keen on purple), for what I hope are obvious reasons; much of our kit is similarly bright. I should also point out, we’ve invested in good quality kit, and I do mean invest, as with proper maintenance much of this will last us for years and see us in good stead for many more trips.

We both have rucksacks from Osprey; they’re expensive but mine is the most comfortable pack I’ve ever had the pleasure to carry. It moulds to your body shape and you forget that it’s there. As well as a main compartment they have side pouches, a top pouch, a front pouch and even pouches on the waist band, so ideal for organising your kit. This next photo is me and Willow at Crummock Water, with me wearing my rucksack.

In the main compartment of my rucksack I carry a 3 person bothy bag shoved down to the bottom (Nicola has an emergency bivvy bag in her rucksack). Down the side I have a folding sitting pad. Next to go in is a spare mid-layer, usually a merino wool hoody; this goes in a dry bag. Then goes my lunch (and Willow’s!). Last things in are waterproof trousers and jacket. These also go in a dry bag so that if I put them away wet they don’t get the rest of my stuff wet as well.

There’s a pocket inside the top of the rucksack and in here I carry a pair of gloves, a hat and a buff, again in a dry bag. I also have a bar of chocolate covered Kendal mint cake in this pocket.

In the front pouch I have a first aid kit in a ziploc bag containing 2 x medium wound dressings, a large absorbent pad, a roll of sticky plaster and pain killers. (Nicola has an extra large wound dressing, eye wash, eye pad, allergy tablets and steri-strips in hers.) I also have an orange folding bowl in the front pouch for Willow.

I also carry a map in the front pouch, inside a waterproof map case.

I carry two water bottles, one in each side pouch; one of them is a Water2Go so that we can refill as we go. Sometimes I’ll swap out a water bottle for a flask of coffee (we share the coffee so that Nicola still has two water bottles).

In the top pouch I carry a few bits and pieces in a dry bag: paracord, bandana, mylar blanket, lighter, torch, notebook and pencil and a spare filter for my Water2Go bottle. In the same top pouch I also have a couple of glow sticks and a monocular.

In one of the waist band pouches I carry a compass; often I have a camera in the other. I also have an emergency whistle in the strap of the rucksack. And lastly, although not in my rucksack, is an army issue jack knife that I wear on my belt (Nicola has an Opinel No.7 in her bag).

So that’s what Nicola and I carry around with us when we go for a day hike. I think we’re pretty well prepared, but let me know if you have any suggestions.

If you’re more intersted in survival, take a look at his post I wrote on survival kits.